Overview
Overuse of antibiotics in children can cause rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, and asthma when they grow up. Children under 5 years are susceptible to respiratory illnesses such as:
- Bronchitis
- Sore throat
- Flu
- Less resistance
Illness resolves after 5-7 days if well cared for. However, the accompanying symptoms such as cough, fever, runny nose … that many parents worry about, and baby arbitrarily antibiotics to lick off. According to experts, overuse can harm health along with the development of the baby.
Overuse of antibiotics in children
The overuse of antibiotics in children can cause very serious problems when they grow up. Some of the disorders triggered by overuse of antibiotics in children are in the following with their details:
Rheumatoid arthritis
Research presented at the annual meeting of College of Rheumatology 2014, Boston (USA). It states that the use of antibiotics in children increases the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in teenage. In particular, the risk increases if children are exposed too early to different kinds of antibiotics.
The research was conducted on 2,000 children fewer than 16 in the UK. Results showed those 153 patients with juvenile arthritis and 1,530 others without the disease.
Asthma due to overuse of antibiotics in children
The scientists also found an association between antibiotics and asthma. If the child uses antibiotics before 6 months of age, the risk of asthma as an adult is above 40%. This risk may be increased to 70% of children who are on antibiotics once. So overuse of antibiotics in children causes Asthma which is a very dangerous and leading cause of weakness and even death.
Obesity
The overuse of antibiotics in children can cause obesity. Antibiotic researchers experimented in 2014 on 64,500 children. They did experiments on children from birth to 5 years old.
Results showed that in children under 2 years of treatment on antibiotics 4 times the risk of obesity increased by 10. The symptoms of cough, fever, runny nose, etc, make parents worry. The symptoms of cough, fever and runny nose make parents worry.
Colitis
Clostridium difficile bacteria cause pseudomembranous colitis (inflammatory bowel disease). Central Control and Disease Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 17,000 children aged 1-to 17 have Clostridium difficile bacterial infections each year.
Antibiotics are risk factors for Clostridium difficile causes most developed infections in both adults and children. Antibiotics remove beneficial bacteria and help protect against infection in a few weeks to several months. During this time, patients with Clostridium difficile infection can from the surrounding environment. This is another drawback of the overuse of antibiotics in children.
According to every other study posted in the Journal of Pediatrics. Children with Clostridium difficile infection are commonly prescribed antibiotics within the previous 12 weeks. This bacterial toxin acts on the intestinal mucosa. It causes loss of bowel function and forms pseudo membranous membranes.
This false membrane peeling bleeding will lead to children eating appetite. Moreover, digestive disorders (vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dullness, etc), and even bloody stool.
Drug resistance
Overuse of antibiotics in children is the main reason causing drug-resistant bacteria. In the US, there are about 11.4 million antibiotic prescriptions. These are unnecessary Statistics for children and adolescents. In Vietnam, according to a survey, there are although antibiotics are prescribed medication.
There are 88% of pharmacies in urban areas and 91% in rural areas of business freedom. In addition, antibiotics do not affect viruses. But 85% of cases of viral respiratory infections are antibiotic prescriptions.
The overuse or misuse of antibiotics makes the process of bacterial drug resistance occurs faster. The born super bacteria carry the gene for resistance. According to experts, parents should not give children antibiotics when not needed. For viral diseases and cough, common cold, etc can use the safe medicinal.
